


Sightseeing Tour

by Ausphin



Category: Darkest Dungeon (Video Game)
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-20
Updated: 2019-04-20
Packaged: 2020-01-16 18:10:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,449
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18526867
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ausphin/pseuds/Ausphin
Summary: This was inspired by one of the in-game named party combinations. Hellion with 3 Antiquarians is Sightseeing Tour, meant for the Hellion escorting the much weaker members through. It stuck with me, a warrior babysitting 3 appraisers who can barely hold their own.=====Standing outside the ruins, the Hellion thought not for the first time about how much she regretted this. She was a skilled warrior, a jagged glaive glinting as it ripped the night and all its inhabitants in twain. And tonight... a glorified babysitter.The three who'd approached her looked much more at home in a library than a dungeon. The least-timid one introduced them as Antiquarians. Scholars, appraisers, archaeologists. Three who were very interested in scavenging, but very not built for it. She knew right away she'd regret it but...Their coins were a persuasive argument.





	Sightseeing Tour

 

Standing outside the ruins, the Hellion thought not for the first time about how much she regretted this. She was a skilled warrior, a jagged glaive glinting as it ripped the night and all its inhabitants in twain. And tonight... a glorified babysitter.

The three who'd approached her looked much more at home in a library than a dungeon. The least-timid one introduced them as Antiquarians. Scholars, appraisers, archaeologists. Three who were very interested in scavenging, but very not built for it. She knew right away she'd regret it but...

Their coins were a persuasive argument.

\-----

"I know this was asked before but... what kind of threats are there here?"

"All kinds," The Hellion replied, watching the path ahead as they crept through a hallway. "The usual, cultists and bandits. The undead."

The scholar paled slightly. "Now, when you say undead... un-dead meaning not-dead meaning living?"

"Living. Moving. Dead."

"Hm."

The Antiquarian turned to confer with the others but their chatter was quickly cut off as they stumbled across a group of enemies. The camp of cultists seemed to be blindsided, recoiling from their arrival as the Hellion leapt into action. Kicking off a crumbling wall into the air, she plunged her blade straight into the furthest foe, an acolyte of some forgotten nameless faction that crumpled as the Hellion kicked off of her to yank out the blade and land back by the Antiquarians.

The trio stared in awe for a few seconds before the nearest stirred, sidestepping to put the Hellion between her and the other two enemies. Another slipped a hand in her satchel, whipping out powder in a flash of light at one enemy's eyes, the brawler yelping as he tried to cover his face. The third began to fan the censer around, putting a cloud of smoke near the party to try to obfuscate them.

The first brawler swung out in a wide miss, growling at the barbarian in front.

The second had better accuracy, clawed gauntlet grazing the Hellion's front in a spray of crimson. He gave her a cocky smirk, but flickered as she returned it. "Not bad. Now let's see what you're made of."

With that, she stepped forward and brought her weapon in a broad from shoulder to the other side's ribs. He pulled his arm back to give another strike, but stumbled to his knees then the ground instead.

One of the Antiquarians, seeing the previous success of the flashpowder, repeated the action of throwing another but was expected this time and blocked. The other two began to billow a green cleansing smoke around the Hellion, seeing her grimace as the wound lessened.

The brawler attacked again, this time managing to catch one of the blades on the Hellion but she simply stepped into the attack and threw him to the ground with a wince. Stilling him with the threat of her blade at his throat, she turned to her group. "Who of you can kill?" The trio looked at each other nervously. "If you want to survive, you must take a life to save yours. If you can't, you're already dead."

Beckoning them forward, only one listened and stepped forward shakily. "Good. You have a weapon?" Hellion asked. The scholar shook her head. "Find something. A knife, your smoker, a rock."

Looking all around, the Antiquarian's gaze fell on the other brawler and the claws he wore. Wordlessly, she went over and retrieved one of the gauntlets, cradling it in her hands and not putting it on.

"You know what to do with that? Where to cut?" Another shake of the head. "Many places kill, most are slow though. Don't draw it out if you kill, leaving them to bleed out is a waste. Here, not here." She gestured on the torso with a foot, keeping both hands holding the blade against him.

The Antiquarian stepped closer, gripping the blade tighter. She lifted it, held it over the brawler's heart as he glared up at her silently. "I... can't," she faltered.

The cultist started to flail, whipping an arm out towards the scholar but was stilled permanently by the Hellion. She looked over the trio for a moment before turning away. "Let's go. Keep moving."

\-----

The next few rooms came and went without issue. The Hellion was by no means chatty before, but had now taken on a distant and just-short-of-icy demeanor. When combat came, she dispatched them with minimal intervention from the others. When they looted, she simply watched the exits until they were ready to continue.

After they'd cleared another hallway, one of the Antiquarians approached her. "I'm sorry, can we... rest a moment? We're making good time, but my colleagues are a bit exhausted." The Hellion surveyed the three, all looking fairly winded. "We can next room," she grunted.

She slipped open the door, glaive at the ready before relaxing at the empty room. She walked in with the others trailing closely behind. Without a word, she moved to the clearest bit of the floor and unceremoniously dropped the firewood, getting to work on starting a flame.

The scholars stood awkward a moment before peeling off to pick through the room.

Glancing up every so often, the Hellion had to admit they had a talent for finding loot. The haul left by her campsite included obsidian statues, a preciously-packaged tapestry, and a fistful of rubies of varying size. "If only they wanted to spill red as much as collect it," she mumbled to herself.

Once the flames were at a respectible level, she sat silently as the others flocked over. While the Antiquarians had kept a mild chatter up while they dug through the rubble and ruins and the fire was a welcome sight, it seemed to kill conversation. The warmth sustaining them also felt like a beacon, a sure signal of the intruders in the domain of the dead.

After a few moments of this, the Hellion was the one to break the quiet. "You all should rest while you can. I'll stand guard."

"Should we do it in shifts?" One of the scholars spoke up. "You need rest too and..." they trailed off as the warrior set her stoic look on them. "Nevermind."

The trio moved to a corner barely in the firelight, huddling on what little blanket they'd brought to try to insulate against the cold stone floor.

The Hellion watched dutifuly, weapon at the ready and lifted at every echoing sound in the corridors in case one ventured inside.

Finally, once their light had reduced to dull embers, she stood and moved to go wake the scholars but didn't get the chance.

A large form barreled into the room at her, barely giving enough time to raise her weapon in defense, knocked back.

The skeletal body of what could've once been a crusader or knight glared at her, stepping forward through what was left of the fire. The Hellion swung at him but he simply lifted his shield, arm-bones crackling against her hit but remaining intact.

He raised his axe for another attack and she clutched both ends of her glaive to catch the axe, groaning against his weight.

As he pressed forward and downward, she started a barbaric yawp to try and surprise him, but with an unexpected speed he relented with the axe and swung with the flat of his shield, hitting her square on the face and stunning her.

While her yell had been cut off, it had done a secondary job of waking the Antiquarians. Barely able to grasp what was going on in the dark, the first to recover felt themselves bolting forward at the figure lifting an axe over their chaperone.

Gripping a dull blade that felt like it was cutting into their own hand, the nervous scholar whipped it around wildly, carving small chunks out of the exposed bones of an arm.

The other two followed suit, weapons trembling but swinging in an unwieldy barrage.

By the time the skeleton had realized what was going on, the Hellion had shaken off the hit and swung her glaive down to disarm him as the trio continued until he succumbed to their pelting.

She watched them continue to whack at the corpse, growing ragged until she called for them to stop. "I'm... surprised. Didn't expect you to attack a skeleton."

"That was an undead?!" One of them yelped before covering her mouth. The dark may have gave them the benefit of not having to visually face their fear.

The Hellion chuckled, tone a good deal warmer with mild respect. "Not bad. Maybe if you make it through the last rooms, I'll bother to learn your names."


End file.
